Are Adobe CC and Spotlight killing me?

[DC41]

Please take a look at the attached screenshots. I got about, what? 7 hours of use from my MBA (16GB/1TB) from 100% battery to 10%. No heavy usage... only browsers and Outlook on a strong WiFi connection. I think (but don't know) that Spotlight does most of its work when the machine is asleep or on AC. But Adobe CCLibrary is killing me! No other app was above 6 in the 12 hr Power column! And I closed CCLibrary about 3-4 hours into the day!

Tomorrow I'll make sure CCLibrary is closed before I unplug and compare days, but what about Spotlight? Am I right that it's doing most of its work while the MBA is sleeping and/or when plugged in? I know CCLibrary is still Intel based, but has anyone else had this much power suckage with their M1 and CCLibrary? Suggestions for further troubleshooting?

 

[cmaier]

Spotlight indexing would be mdworker, not spotlight, in activity monitor. I blame Adobe.

 

[MrGunny94]

Yeh it's CC for sure. You gonna have to force it to sleep most likely..

Also make sure you are using the Outlook app from the Mac App Store, that's the M1 native one.. And if you have Discord get rid of it and use the web app for the time being.

 

[mj_]

Also make sure you are using the Outlook app from the Mac App Store, that's the M1 native one.

Office 365, which includes among other things Word, Excel, and Outlook, has been M1-native for months now.

 

[chrfr]

Also make sure you are using the Outlook app from the Mac App Store, that's the M1 native one.

As long as you're using a fairly recent version of Microsoft Office apps, it doesn't matter whether they come from the App Store or direct from Microsoft– they're all native.

 

[Significant1]

Spotlight indexing would be mdworker, not spotlight, in activity monitor. I blame Adobe.

I have seen spotlight constantly above 100% cpu eating my battery, so it might not be the indexing part, but the lookup 🤷‍♂️. Killing it in activity monitor helped.

 

[Leon1das]

I have seen spotlight constantly above 100% cpu eating my battery, so it might not be the indexing part, but the lookup 🤷‍♂️. Killing it in activity monitor helped.

I disabled indexing by selecting my full MacintoshHD drive in Spotlight settings. (selecting folder or drive will stop its indexing)

Now using Launchpad: for apps
Find Any File: for fast search of files & folders...

 

[DC41]

Spotlight indexing would be mdworker, not spotlight, in activity monitor. I blame Adobe.

If it's not indexing, what is Spotlight doing that's using so much power? I search maybe three times a day.

 

[cmaier]

If it's not indexing, what is Spotlight doing that's using so much power? I search maybe three times a day.

That’s what beats me. Maybe it got hung or something.

 

[ssmed]

I have just checked Adobe CC here – absolutely no problems. Are you syncing a new library to the cloud or doing a lot of updates. I use Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, Audition, Premier, and Lightroom.

 

[DC41]

That’s what beats me. Maybe it got hung or something.

Well, I can't quit or force quit Spotlight in Activity Monitor, and it doesn't show up in Apple/Force Quit menu. Whatever it's doing, it keeps on doing it! I'll run "sudo mdutil -a -i off" in terminal and see if that makes a difference.

I have just checked Adobe CC here – absolutely no problems. Are you syncing a new library to the cloud or doing a lot of updates. I use Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, Audition, Premier, and Lightroom.

No, I don't use CC's library, and the last time there were any updates was a few days ago. Primarily I'm using Photoshop, Illustrator, XD, and occasionally Premiere Rush. The company pays for the whole CC suite, so I've got everything but rarely use anything else.

 

[jdb8167]

If it's not indexing, what is Spotlight doing that's using so much power? I search maybe three times a day.

In the energy tab it appears that indexing is labeled as Spotlight. Not sure why energy gets special treatment but apparently it does.

 

[cmaier]

In the energy tab it appears that indexing is labeled as Spotlight. Not sure why energy gets special treatment but apparently it does.

That is weird.

 

[Fishrrman]

From the time it was introduced, I didn't care for spotlight mucking around with my drives.

So...
... From the time it was introduced, I've TURNED OFF Spotlight immediately and never turn it back on again.

Very easy to do.
Try it. Turn it OFF.
If you like things better that way, leave it off.
If you don't, just turn it back on.

This command used to work for turning off spotlight:
sudo mdutil -a -i off

If that doesn't work, try this one:
DISABLE:
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

RE-ENABLE:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

 

[cmaier]

From the time it was introduced, I didn't care for spotlight mucking around with my drives.

So...
... From the time it was introduced, I've TURNED OFF Spotlight immediately and never turn it back on again.

Very easy to do.
Try it. Turn it OFF.
If you like things better that way, leave it off.
If you don't, just turn it back on.

This command used to work for turning off spotlight:
sudo mdutil -a -i off

If that doesn't work, try this one:
DISABLE:
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

RE-ENABLE:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

Far easier way is just to go to the spotlight privacy tag in settings and add your drive. (Or remove it to reenable).

I couldn’t live without spotlight - primary way I launch apps, open files, etc.

 

[Significant1]

The spotlight problem happens for me, when starting xcode 13 beta ios simulator. Killing spotlight in activity monitor solves it without any sideeffects AFAICT.